Morphology-controlled synthesis of Ag3PO4 microcrystals for high performance photocatalysis

Abstract

A fast and energy-saving anion exchange method for the synthesis of Ag₃PO₄ microcrystals with various shapes of sphere, rhombic dodecahedron, truncated tetragonal bipyramid microbox and self-assembled parallel quadrilateral prism has been described. The morphology of the Ag₃PO₄ crystals can be tuned by coordinating Ag⁺ with various ligands. Thanks to the hollow box structure, the truncated tetragonal bipyramids exhibit higher photocatalytic activity in the degradation of RhB than spherical and rhombic dodecahedral ones under visible light irradiation.